Concert Review: The David Bowie Alumni Tour – Aotea Centre, May 4, 2019

David Bowie Celebration: The David Bowie Alumni Tour was exactly as the name suggests, with two hours of Bowie hits and a few rarer gems performed close to perfection at Aotea Centre last night.

The hidden value of the concert was very much Mike Garson on piano, filling the brief moments between songs with the nostalgia you’d expect from someone who played with Bowie over the course of “some 400 songs”. Although it was very much a display of expert jazz-rock piano, those small insights show how meaningful it is for the group to still perform these songs and with every bit of energy they have.

The collection of vocalists worked for almost the entirety of the gig, though unbalanced sound engineering led to a vocals-and-rhythm-guitar heavy set, often maximising on the chaos in much of Bowie’s music but just as often losing the balanced sound in the mayhem. Standout vocals from Guatemalan vocalist Gaby Moreno were exceptional on Five Years, Time and Conversation Piece.

Much of the music still works with Bowie no longer with us; some of it can just never be the same without his personal touch. Moonage Daydream, Aladdin Sane and Lazarus were all examples of Bowie’s experimental sound executed to perfection, while some numbers that should work – Ashes to Ashes, Changes, Suffragette City – all lacked the enigmatic charm that Bowie brought to the stage in performance.

Strangely, this wasn’t to the detriment to the performance – just a clear display of how much magic one musician can, and did, bring to their music. Even the faultless drumming of Lee John, vocals of Bernard Fowler, Corey Glover, and Joe Sumner, and Bowie alumni guitarists Carmine Rojas and Gerry Leonard couldn’t mask the absence of that immeasurable, casual charm on stage.

Still, it was an evening to celebrate Bowie, and the setlist was split quite effectively between largely well-known hits, and a few hidden songs that strangely didn’t receive the same crowd-pushing-the-stage reception. Aladdin Sane showcased the immense skill of Garson on piano, while Gerry Leonard took the stage solo to thrash out a wig-donned version of Andy Warhol – both to half the finger-clicking reception of, say, Fame.

But that’s what the evening was about, really; you’re not seeing Bowie, you’re seeing the people who were lucky enough to play alongside him for even the briefest period of time. The result is a musical impact that still resonates throughout audiences and the remaining band today, where we miss the Space Oddity who graced our stages with his sometimes strange, always irresistible magnetism.

Closing the gig with fan-and-band favourite, Life On Mars, the two-hour concert was a reminder of all the weird, cosmic beauty Bowie brought to music for many decades. Although he may be gone, and revisiting his music live is similar to looking nostalgically at a photograph, the songs will always remain as inspiring and groundbreaking as they did decades ago.

-Oxford Lamoureaux

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Ivan Karczewski:

Setlist:

Bring Me The Disco King

Rebel Rebel

Moonage Daydream

Fame

Young Americans

Space Oddity

Starman

Lazarus

Five Years

Time

Changes

Ashes To Ashes

I’m Afraid Of Americans

Conversation Piece

Panic in Detroit

Aladdin Sane

Let’s Dance

Under Pressure

Suffragette City

All The Young Dudes

Andy Warhol

Life On Mars

Heroes